Last Fall I wrote an extensive feature here on Mad Mariner about explosion of joystick-enabled inboards, powered by Volvo-Penta's IPS system and CumminsMercruiser Diesel's Zeus system.  The IPS version had quite a head start but Zeus was in the water and was making headway.  Barely four months later, it is clear that azimuthing pod drives -- the IPS and Zeus systems -- will eventually dominate the inboard market.  The performance advantages are dramatic and the capabilities are being extended into both higher and lower horsepower environments.

When I wrote the piece, Mercury Marine's Axius system for sterndrives -- a similar, joystick-controlled technology that brings azimuthing pod-drive maneuverability to I/O boats -- was in final development and testing.  Four months later, it has taken over the sterndrive market at a rate of adoption that resembles a runaway nuclear chain reaction.  Kind of makes you wonder how Volvo-Penta will react.  They've always been the innovation leader in the sterndrive market -- they made the first sterndrive and the first dual-prop sterndrive, but they do have some catching-up to do now.

CMDCumminsMerCruiser Diesel's Zeus Joystick in Action

So, inboards are covered.  Sterndrives are covered.  How about outboards?  Well, Mercury may have been second off the dock with the original drive pods for inboards, but it won the sterndrive race and it might just be the first to offer a similar maneuvering technology for outboards.  Officials at Mercury told me they are evaluating just such a system right now.  It's not a slam-dunk, however.  Right now the system looks expensive, as have been the inboard and sterndrive solutions.  It could be that for the bigger, more expensive outboards, the additional expense of the computer and drive systems would be more easily justified where it would be a smaller piece of the overall expense.  For smaller outboards, it might be cost-prohibitive. 

My bet, let's call it a "somewhat informed, somewhat optimistic" guess, is that we will see joystick-controlled twin outboards, at least on bigger boats with the bigger engines; perhaps 200HP or 250HP and above.  Mercury knows how to do it and if it makes business sense for them you can bet they'll do it. 

This leaves us with a similar question for the larger outboard market that we have for the sterndrive market.  What do the competitors do?  There is more competition in the outboard market than there is in the sterndrive world.  Perhaps a Yamaha, or Honda, or BRP Evinrude could  come up with something.  We will definitely know more about the future of joysticks in our boats, especially the smaller ones, by the time the Fort Lauderdale show comes around late this Fall.